Citizens Seek Funds for Park, ‘Gateway’ to Balboa Peninsula

On a dusty vacant lot at Newport Boulevard and Short Street--once the site of a gas station--resident Jim Thompson envisions a park that would serve as a symbolic gateway.

“It’s a prime location,” said Thompson, 56. “It’s the entryway to the city’s Balboa Peninsula.”

Thompson, who lives in Corona del Mar, made a down payment on the 8,500-square-foot parcel earlier this year, then recruited a 15-member fund-raising committee to come up with $300,000 needed to buy the site, which is on Newport Boulevard across from City Hall.

Landscaping would cost another $100,000, the committee estimates.

What the panel has in mind is a sculptured landscape of shrubbery and palm trees with flags and a statue--perhaps one donated by an international sister city. The aim is to create a pleasing visual effect on property too near the busy street to accommodate a playground.

The City Council has voted to accept ownership of the park when it is completed and pick up the tab for about $1,200 a year in maintenance costs.

“Everyone who comes into the peninsula sees this property,” said Thompson, who has lived in the city for nearly 30 years. “It would be a shame to put another building here.”

The committee has about 100 individual pledges ranging from $100 to $5,000, Thompson said, and hopes to stir more interest with a 10-yard-long banner that is now posted at the property. It reads: “Help us build a park.”

Time is a factor. If the fund-raising group, the Gateway to Newport’s Balboa Peninsula Citizens Committee, does not have enough money by the end of the month to close on the property, which is in escrow, the seller would be free to consider other offers.

The committee’s mission now is to translate community support for the project into cash contributions.

Craig Sadil, 35, who lives in the neighborhood, said he is pleased someone is taking action to do something with the vacant lot, which housed a Chevron station that closed five years ago:

“I’m tired of looking at the dirt every day. And to do something meaningful and valuable there would be a beautiful thing.”

Said Ross Miller, 34, another local resident: “A park would be a lot prettier than an old gas station.”

Information: (714) 759-1018.